Holly Schinsky: Developer spotlight

What (Adobe and non-Adobe) technologies are you currently using?

Flex/ActionScript 3/AIR, LiveCycle Data Services, Java, and MySQL.

What is your most recent project you've built and what (Adobe and non-Adobe) technologies have you used?

My recent projects include Tour de Flex web version, Tour de Flex Eclipse plug-in, Tour de Flex samples for LiveCycle Data Services and Flex 4, and Attest Flex Certification Mock Exam Engine. For those projects I utilized Flex/ActionScript and Adobe AIR with LiveCycle Data Services.

What excites you, inspires you, or makes you say "Wow that's really cool" about the technologies you work with?

I'm amazed by how much software development has changed. It has become so easy and fast now to build reliable, powerful applications. I started working at IBM 13 years ago in a low-level engineering group that was using Assembler, Cobol, and doing structured programming using IBM's proprietary language (PL/1). I started doing web development when it was in its initial state using HTML with CGI, and with the advent of Java and the servlet API I became instantly hooked on object-oriented programming. It was a natural fit for me and inspiring to see how I could envision solving an application need in a whole new manner. It has only grown since then and with my move to Flex and ActionScript, I'm continuously motivated by the fact that I can produce amazing applications so quickly.

Where do you get your information about technology?

I'm constantly reading blog posts, articles, books, watching videos, and attending seminars online. Talking to friends in the industry is huge too, and attending whatever conferences I can squeeze in always allows me to stay on top of the latest trends in technology.

What are some of your favorite community resources, websites or blogs?

How are you involved with the community?

I try to be involved with the community as much as possible. This includes working on applications like Tour de Flex and Attest to help out the Flex Developer community, providing tips on my blog, answering questions around the web, and attending and presenting at user groups and conferences.

What is your favorite or most useful electronic gadget that you own? How about one that you want, but don't own?

Apple iPhone all the way—couldn't live without it!

What's the one thing you'd love to see in web technologies in the future?

Tighter integration and management of my most frequently visited and used websites. It would be nice to use one login to not only aggregate all of my favorite data real-time, whether it be RSS feeds, Twitter updates, Facebook updates etc., but also allow me to push certain data to multiple places at once and refine searches based on my own personal use.

I'm also totally fascinated by the augmented reality applications that are surfacing and see a lot of potential with it in the near future.

What was the genesis/origin/history for your existing work?

When I first saw Flex working with a back-end Adobe LiveCycle process a few years back, I thought that had to be the coolest thing I had seen to integrate a sexy looking front end with such a powerful back end. I was immediately inspired to dive in and learn more. I had been more of a server-side person for many years but always enjoyed UI work for a change. Flex brought that to a whole new level for me, and when I've had to go back to using technologies like Java Swing, Java SWT (for Eclipse plug-in development) to build UI's, I've realized the benefits of it that much more.

What's next for you? For technology?

I plan to continue to work with Adobe technologies as much as possible, expanding my knowledge with learning Adobe ColdFusion and trying out some Adobe Flash development for building iPhone applications. I hope to see Flex become even more widely adopted as people realize the benefits of the Flash Platform. I will do my best to support that goal by continuing to put time into community projects including Tour de Flex, Attest, writing articles, networking with the development community, etc.—in addition to my development projects.